This day has so many back stories, secrets, depth, layers and angles. If I had to write everything in my head and heart, together with what actually happend, I would never get this post done! After 5 hours and 2 other takes, here goes…

Glenys & Jeremy’s engagement story:

22 June 2015: Jeremy types the first of 365 daily secret letters on a 1950’s typewriter. Every letter ends with: Glenys Idette Bosman, will you marry me?

Nov 2015: Jeremy called me in South Africa. He is planning his and Glenys’ secret engagement and Glenys has mentioned before that she would love if I can document it happening.

Dec 2015: My flights are booked to Los Angeles. Glenys knows I am coming to the States for a wedding in July, but she receives a photoshopped itinerary to keep it a secret that I will be in LA earlier for her engagement.

12 June 2016: Glenys gets invited by 3 of her friends to go to LA on a “road trip”. They called it the Queens of African road trip: Glenys (born in South Africa) + Adaeze (Nigerian roots) + Jerusalem (Born in Ethiopia) + Esther (Ghana roots.)

18 June: Jeremy tells Glenys he is going on a “hiking trip” in the Rocky Mountains with friends. No cell reception of course.

I arrive in LA + meet up with Jeremy to do the last planning for the engagement and just hang out with awesome friends of Jeremy and Glenys.

Here, Jeremy finished up the last of the letters…

19 June: Jeremy sends Glenys a text “from the mountains” with a picture of him and his one friend with trees in the background: “Hi Honey! Finally found a tiny spot of reception with my last bit of battery life. So sorry I missed your messages. I so badly wanted to talk with you. The hike has been amazing so far! One what we will definitely do together someday. No bears yet, but I’m still looking. Miss you! Love you so much.”

21 June: Jeremy and I made our way towards Big Sur, California. Jeremy’s initial idea was to get engaged at a beautiful spot called McWay Falls. The 2 of them always wanted to travel there, but in the end we realised it would be too touristy and busy for the engagement and kept searching the area, until we found a magical place called, Garrapata. This was THE perfect spot and I could not hold my tears in. There was something about this place…

The Queens of Africa arrived in LA.

The big day, 22 June: morning:

The girls planned on having a photoshoot in Big Sur, so everyone got dressed up. Glenys borrowed a dress from Jeru, which in reality was bought especially for her engagement by her sister, Elmarie and friends. Elmarie and Glenys also had their nails done just before this trip with a voucher Jeremy gave them. This was not out of the norm for him to do so this did not make Glenys suspicious.

At this point I made it clear to Jeremy that if Glenys said no, I was next in line. :P

Noon: The girls start their ±5hour drive towards Big Sur. They handed Glenys a box, containing 361 of the 365 letters. (Insert a few happy tears, giggles and a confused look on Glenys’ face here.) She was still unsure about what was going on since Jeremy was supposed to be on a hiking trip. Maybe this is just the start of a longer proposal? Glenys’ friends kept on saying they had no idea what was going on and was talking about their photoshoot later that day.

Jeremy and I drove around finding the last things for the setup and got everything in place. All we had to do was wait until 19h for them to arrive:

19h00: Jeremy stood on his spot. The final 365th letter was in the typewriter. This would be where Glenys gets to answer.

I was hiding behind a bush.

Jeremy had no cellphone reception at Garrapata so some old school directions had to be used to get the girls to the exact spot.

19h10: No Glenys yet.

19h20: The girl’s car pulled into the parking lot, after they saw our marked (and very yellow) rented car called Gogga. Jeru told Glenys that she is on her own from here, showing her to the beginning of the pathway.

Glenys realised at this point that this was her engagement and saw Jeremy off into the distance. Her face was shining! As she walked down, she saw me hiding behind the bush and said “jou bliksem!” with the biggest smile on her face.

After a quick hug to say hi to my friend, I explained to her that there were 3 more letters on her way towards Jeremy to read:

The Team: Lizelle, Esther, Jeremy, Glenys, Jeru, Adaeze

The ring has a story of it’s own! Glenys herself is a jewellery designer, so Jeremy put in a lot of effort to give Glenys the ring she would love.

He bought the diamond in Colorado and had the ring designed by Ida Elsje whom Glenys used to work for in South Africa. Her sister Elmarie brought the setting back to Colorado after her last visit to SA.

A quick stop at the BEAUTIFUL Bixby Bridge before we head back to our hotel for some celebrations!